


christmas cookies.

by pyroallerdyce



Series: a dyad in the force (aka all my ben/rey fics) [167]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Baking, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Conversations, Cookies, December writing challenge, F/M, First Meetings, Inspired by Music, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Relationship(s), Short One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27893656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyroallerdyce/pseuds/pyroallerdyce
Summary: Ben finished putting the dough on the pan and turned to put it in the oven.  He’d been working on new recipes for Christmas cookies for nearly an hour and he thought he’d finally perfected one.  He’d taste test the cookies he’d just put in the oven to see if they were good enough to sell in the bakery, and once he deemed that they were, he’d email the recipe to Hux so that production could start.It was the beginning of December and it was time to start selling the Christmas goodies already.  They had everything but cookies already selling, but Ben hadn’t been able to find the right recipe for a special Christmas cookie so they had just been decorating their regular cookies and selling those.  Those were selling at a steady pace, but they always sold a special Christmas cookie, and so that’s what was going to happen.Ben was not going to let it go any other way.or:  Ben's trying to perfect a Christmas cookie recipe for his bakery to sell, Rey is trying to get people to agree to come to a charity event, and when Ben gets locked out of his apartment, Rey helps him get back inside, and Ben invites her in to try a cookie.  Turns out Rey loves his bakery.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: a dyad in the force (aka all my ben/rey fics) [167]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1601755
Comments: 8
Kudos: 46
Collections: December Writing Challenge - 2020





	christmas cookies.

**Author's Note:**

> December writing challenge day 5. Last Star Wars story for a few days. Gonna get my X-Men writing vibes going. My Ben and Rey will be back soon.
> 
> Not going to lie, it wasn't until just about now that I noticed I completely overlooked the neighbors part of the prompt. Oh well.
> 
> I apparently have a thing about Ben owning bakeries now. Anyway, the cookie recipe mentioned here is the [Eggnog Meltaway cookies](https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/eggnog-meltaway-cookies-3494642) that I found on the Food Network website, and it was chosen because they sound delicious.
> 
> and as always, if you like what you read and you want to see more, please let me know via a comment or kudos or bookmark so that I know I'm not writing into a void. Enjoy!
> 
> December 5 Prompt: We’re neighbors and I just got locked out of my apartment, I was baking cookies that will burn if I don’t get in there quick. (verobird on Tumblr)  
> Title Song: Christmas Cookies by George Strait

Ben finished putting the dough on the pan and turned to put it in the oven. He’d been working on new recipes for Christmas cookies for nearly an hour and he thought he’d finally perfected one. He’d taste test the cookies he’d just put in the oven to see if they were good enough to sell in the bakery, and once he deemed that they were, he’d email the recipe to Hux so that production could start. 

It was the beginning of December and it was time to start selling the Christmas goodies already. They had everything but cookies already selling, but Ben hadn’t been able to find the right recipe for a special Christmas cookie so they had just been decorating their regular cookies and selling those. Those were selling at a steady pace, but they always sold a special Christmas cookie, and so that’s what was going to happen. 

Ben was not going to let it go any other way.

A knock at his door broke him of his thoughts, and he went over and opened it. A beautiful woman was standing there with fliers in her hands, and she gave him a big smile. “Hello, I’m Rey and I work at the homeless shelter that’s four blocks from here. We’re having a charity fundraiser for the shelter next Saturday and I’m here to spread the word.”

Ben smiled at her. He always liked to help out charity events. “Well, hello, Rey. I’m Ben and I’m interested. Tell me more about this.”

Before Rey could say another thing, a couple of kids ran down the hall and one of them bumped into her hard enough for her grip on the fliers to be loosened, and then fliers went everywhere. “Fuck,” she said, immediately crouching down to collect them again. “I need all of these.”

Ben walked out into the hall and started to pick them up as well, mindful of the fact that he still had the cookies in the oven. “Let me help you.”

“Bless you,” Rey said, shaking her head. “I swear, people have no concept of personal space. That’s the fourth time someone’s bumped into me while I’ve been doing this today. I haven’t dropped the fliers before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

“I know what you mean about personal space. I was ready to cringe because my skin was crawling so badly when I almost got crushed by two women at the corner store the other day. We do not need all three of us to reach for the same thing at the same time. Take a fucking second to let others go first.”

“I totally get that,” Rey replied, turning to look behind her for more fliers. “Thank you so much for helping me with these.”

“Of course,” Ben said, standing up and handing the ones he’d collected to Rey once she stood. “I’ll keep one for myself and be sure that I stop by.”

“That would be great,” she said. “You’re the first one who has said that.”

Ben frowned. “Really?”

Rey nodded. “Helping the homeless is apparently not a very popular thing around here.”

“That’s terrible,” Ben replied. “They’re the ones who need help the most.”

“Exactly,” Rey said, smiling at him. “Thank you so much, Ben. I really appreciate all of your help.”

Ben heard the beep of the oven timer go off and his eyes widened. “I’ve got to go. Cookies in the oven.”

“You bake?” Rey said as Ben turned to his door. “Cool.”

Ben tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t open. He rattled the doorknob around a little, but it still wouldn’t open. “Fuck. It’s locked.”

“And I suppose you don’t have your key on you,” Rey responded.

“Nope,” Ben said, kicking at the door. “Fuck. The cookies are going to burn, and then there will be smoke that sets off the sprinklers, and then all my stuff is going to be ruined by the water. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Rey walked over to him and held out the fliers. “Hold these for a moment.”

Ben was confused but took the fliers from her, and Rey reached up and pulled a pin from her hair. She bent it to the right angle, stuck it into the lock, and a few moments later, she was opening the door. “There.”

Ben blinked rapidly. “How do you know how to do that?”

“Let’s just not worry about that, okay?” Rey said. “Go get your cookies.”

“Come have one,” Ben said, walking into the apartment. “I need someone to taste test them anyway.”

Rey nodded and followed him inside, and she instantly realized why Ben didn’t want his stuff ruined. His apartment was _nice_. Designer furniture and a huge television and art on the walls that she suspected was actually worth something. She hadn’t thought that apartments in this building were this nice and it made her angrier that people here were not wanting to help the people at the shelter. The people that lived in this building could quite clearly afford to toss a little bit of money their way.

“Your place is nice,” Rey said, trying not to sound dumb but failing. “I wasn’t expecting a place this nice.”

“Yeah, this building is a little weird,” Ben said, shaking his head. “The owners renovated all of the apartments that were empty at the time of their purchase of the building, like this one, but they’ve never renovated the building itself. So the building looks like shit, but there’s a bunch of really nice apartments here that they make a lot of money off of.”

“Interesting,” Rey said, walking over to the kitchen as Ben pulled the pan out of the oven. “So, what kind of cookies are these?”

“Sugary eggnog,” he replied, setting the pan down to cool. “Almonds, confectioners’ sugar, butter, flour, nutmeg, but the key to them is a little bit of bourbon, rum, and vanilla extract.”

Rey’s eyes widened. “That sounds super complicated for some random guy to be making. The fact that you can bake like that is awesome.”

“It’s my job,” Ben explained. “I own a bakery and these are my latest attempt at perfecting the Christmas cookies we’re going to sell.”

“You own a bakery? Which one?”

“Finalizer,” Ben replied. “It’s located at thirty-sixth and Elm if you ever want to stop by.”

“That’s the most popular bakery in town!” Rey exclaimed. “That place is super cool.”

“Yeah, I tried to make it a little more rock and roll than your normal bakery,” Ben said, transferring the cookies off the pan to a rack so they could cool. “My father thinks I’d sell more stuff if it was your average bakery, but we do quite well the way it is.”

Rey took that in. “So if I asked if you’d be willing to make a donation to the shelter, you’d say…”

“I was already planning to,” Ben said, looking up at her with a smile. “Sit down. Tell me more about this fundraiser while these cool.”

Rey sat down on one of the barstools and started talking about how they were trying to get donations from local businesses that they could then auction off to the highest bidder. They were having trouble finding people willing to participate, however, so that’s why Rey was going door to door trying to get people to come and make donations of their own. 

“There is no way we’re going to meet our goal,’ she explained. “So we’re trying to get as many donations as we can get. Even if someone donates only twenty dollars, it’s so helpful.”

“You seem to really care about this shelter,” Ben pointed out. “I must admit, I didn’t even know there was one near here.”

“I care about it because it helped me out a lot,” Rey said, taking a deep breath. “They’re the only reason I’m here, really.”

Ben checked the temperature of a cookie and reached for a napkin, serving one up and setting it in front of Rey. “Be honest on how it is,” he said. 

Rey picked up the cookie and took a bite, and she immediately closed her eyes and savored how good it was. “This is the best cookie I’ve ever had,” she said after chewing. “Amazing.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear that,” Ben said, trying one himself. “Ah, finally. I’ve been trying to get a Christmas cookie recipe perfected for weeks now and nothing was coming out perfectly. But this, this is fantastic.” 

”Mmhm,” Rey said, taking another bite. 

Ben watched her eat quickly and came to a conclusion, but he wasn’t sure that he was right. “Can I ask you a personal question? You can say no.”

Rey nodded. “You want to know if I was homeless, don’t you?”

“Some of the things you’ve said made me wonder, that’s all,” Ben said, reaching for his phone. “I’ve got to email the recipe to the store so that they can get started on making some for tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Rey said after a moment. “I was homeless. The only reason I’m not now is because of the incredible guy that runs the shelter. Finn noticed that I was far more inclined to work my way out of my situation than anyone else that came to the shelter, and he asked me if I wanted a job and a place to stay. I jumped at the chance, and here I am.”

“I’m glad that you got that chance then,” Ben said, taking a deep breath. “Can I ask why you were homeless?”

Rey sucked in a sharp breath, and Ben immediately turned around. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s fine.”

“No, no,” Rey said, shaking her head. “It’s fine. It’s just close to the anniversary of the accident and I didn’t even realize that until you just asked.”

“Accident?”

“Five years ago, my parents and I were in a really bad car accident,” Rey said, taking a deep breath. “They were both killed and I was seriously injured. I didn’t have any health insurance, and so my near two week stay in the hospital wasn’t covered. I owed them thousands upon thousands of dollars that I simply didn’t have. I lost my job because I wasn’t able to get back to work fast enough for my boss’s liking. The rent came due and I couldn’t afford it. So I lost my place to live too. I still couldn’t work so I couldn’t find somewhere else because I had no money for it. So I packed as much stuff as I could into a backpack and started sleeping rough. I found the shelter one day and went in, and the rest is history. I’m still working off how much I owe the hospital though. They finally agreed to a payment plan. I’ll probably be paying them until the day I die at this rate, but it’s what has to happen.”

Ben took that all in. “I’m so sorry that you’ve had to go through all of that. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like.”

“It’s why I’m so passionate about getting donations for the shelter. I know how much it can help people because it helped me.”

“Well, what can I do to help?” Ben asked, nodding when Rey looked at him. “I’m serious. What can I do?”

“Just a donation of any amount will be helpful,” Rey started, but Ben shook his head. 

“No, I mean more than a donation, though that’ll happen too. What can I do? You said something about an auction I think?”

“Yeah, we’re having an auction of stuff that we’ve had some local businesses donate. But it’s not going to be a very big one.”

“Then I’ll donate a bunch of stuff to the auction,” Ben said seriously. “Custom cakes or dozens of cookies. All kinds of stuff like that.”

Rey’s eyes widened. “Ben, custom cakes at Finalizer are worth hundreds of dollars.”

“I know,” he said. “And I’ll donate ten.”

Rey’s eyes widened even more. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Yes, I am,” Ben said, smiling at her. “So how about we brainstorm more things I can donate while I work on baking more of these, and then you can take the cookies to the shelter.”

“I can’t believe you’re willing to do this. We’ve had so much rejection,” Rey breathed out. 

“Well, you’re not getting rejection from me,” Ben replied, smiling. “Now let’s brainstorm.”

Rey nodded and they spent the next four hours eating cookies and coming up all kinds of different ways that Ben could contribute to the auction and also help the shelter with Christmas dinner. As they talked, Ben realized how intelligent Rey was, and that combined with her incredible beauty made him interested in more than just the homeless shelter she was working so hard to help. By the time that she said she had to leave, Ben knew that he couldn’t let her just walk out of there.

He handed her packages of cookies to take to the shelter, took a deep breath, and then asked. “Rey, would you be interested in having dinner with me tomorrow night?”

Rey picked up the fliers and set them on top of the cookies, cradling them to her chest. “We just planned out everything, Ben,” she said, confused.

“I’m not talking about planning out things,” he responded. “I’m talking about you and I having dinner and getting to know each other better.”

Rey stared at him for a moment. “You mean like a date?”

“Yes,” Ben said, nodding. “Like a date.”

Rey stood there for a second before breaking out into a smile. “Yeah, that would be great.”

Ben smiled back. “I’ll be at the bakery until about seven, but then I could come to pick you up after that.”

“How about I just meet you at the bakery?” Rey said. “That would be easier for both of us, I think.”

“If that’s what you want, then that’s fine with me.”

Rey grinned. “Then I will see you at the bakery at seven.”

They walked over to the door, but before Ben opened it, he decided he had to ask. “Will you tell me how it is you know how to pick a lock now?”

Rey laughed. “That’s a story for at least date number five.”

“Then I guess I have a goal to get to,” Ben said, opening the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

“Thank you, once again, for everything you’re doing for the shelter,” Rey said as she stepped out into the hall. “I can’t put into words how much this means.”

“Happy to help,” Ben replied, and then they said their goodbyes.

Ben closed the door and took a deep breath, heading back to the kitchen to start to clean up. It had been a while since he’d asked a girl out, and he was thrilled that Rey had said yes. He couldn’t wait to get to know her better.

And he’d have some cookies ready for her to take home tomorrow. Or maybe he’d stop by the shelter on his lunch break to drop off some more. It might disrupt his day, but it would be worth it.

Tomorrow night couldn’t come soon enough.


End file.
